A large air compressor that caught fire caused more than...

A large air compressor that caught fire caused more than $1 million worth of product damage early Thursday at the Sealy Mattress Co. at Fabyan Parkway and Kingsland Drive in Batavia.

No one was injured in the blaze that began around midnight and was contained to the compressor, which is located on the plant's south wall and within 15 feet of mattress products.

Fire department officials said the sprinkling system of the 212,700-square-foot plant helped to keep the fire small until firefighters arrived.

"There was a tremendous chance of this becoming a major fire," Batavia Fire Chief William J. Darin said, "and luckily it wasn't."

Some of the 267 workers employed at the 24-hour factory initially tried to use fire extinguishers to put out the fire when it started in the air compressor, but then called 911, said Darin.

The compressor runs on oil and is used as a power source for tools at the factory, Darin said. The factory's products did not burn but were damaged by the black toxic smoke from the compressor's burning oil. It has been not determined yet how the compressor caught fire, he added.

Ken Walker, general counsel for Sealy Inc., the company's parent corporation, said that mattresses are usually completed and shipped out the same day. He said only a small inventory of completed mattresses is kept in the facility, so the damage at the Batavia plant would primarily be to raw materials.

Darin said the plant manager estimated after the fire that if none of the raw material or finished mattresses can be salvaged, it would be a loss of between $1.5 million and $2 million.

Fire department officials also estimated the fire caused $500,000 in structural damage to the building.

Walker said that the factory will remained closed at least through Friday.